Hull City 5 Rotherham 1: Tigers get in mood for play-offs

Richard Sutcliffe

HULL CITY warmed up for the play-offs with a five-goal romp against Rotherham United.

Two goals from Jake Livermore helped set the Tigers on their way to a resounding win that sealed fourth place and home advantage in the play-off semi-finals.

Steve Bruce.

Derby County stand in the way of City and a possible trip to Wembley, with the first leg to be staged at the Ipro a week today.

Steve Bruce’s men will head there brimming with confidence after ensuring what may be Neil

Warnock’s final game as Rotherham United manager ended on a huge low.

Not that this should be allowed to take away from the impact that Warnock has made at the New York Stadium, leading the club to safety with games to spare.

Hull, with the XI that is likely to start against Derby in the play-offs, had fallen behind against the run of play.

Lee Frecklington did the honours with a hooked finish on 16 minutes after City had only partially cleared a Grant Ward cross.

The Tigers had started the game on the front foot and only been denied the opener by a combination of Frazer Richardson’s block and a stunning save by Lee Camp, Abel Hernandez being the unfortunate man kept out on both occasions.

Rotherham’s opener did not, however, unduly rattle the hosts, who replied with two goals inside 98 seconds.

First, Robert Snodgrass rifled in following a knock down from Tom Huddlestone that gave Camp no chance.

Then, in 28 minutes, Hernandez pulled off an outrageous overhead kick that flew into the corner of the net.

The game was over by half-time, another couple of quick-fire goals shortly before the interval ending any hopes Rotherham had of getting back into the contest.

A darting run and pass from Ahmed Elmo created the first of those two goals, as Jake Livermore raced forward to round Camp and score.

Then, Diame was released and made light work of adding a fourth for the rampant hosts.

Hull took 15 minutes of the second half to regain their attacking groove, Snodgrass playing in Livermore who rifled a low shot beyond Lee Camp.